


I'm Not Your Boyfriend, Baby

by Joveesia



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Also Midorima is a lil SHIT, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-11 15:30:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4441274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joveesia/pseuds/Joveesia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt for fililikilili on Tumblr.</p><p>He knew lying wasn't the best way to go about it but the guy was being too nosy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Little White Lies

It was just a typical day of drill for the Shutoku basketball team. The sting of their defeat by Seirin was still tangible even after so many months. Midorima lined up his shot.

 

_Swish_

 

“Perfect as always, Shin-chan.”

 

Midorima sighed and turned to Takao, “I told you not to refer to me as such.”

 

“Aww, so mean!” Takao laughed before going back to his own drills.

 

The coach sounded for a break period after a while. The Shutoku members all gathered for a quick rest on the bench. Takao was used to just listening to the other guys talk, occasionally taking shots at Midorima at his own risk. Midorima would return every quip. Most of the guys would just laugh at them, watching to see who’d ‘win’ this time.

 

This time, one of the guys was in a less than amused mood.

 

“Damn, you two bicker so much that I swear you’re both going out.”

 

“Impossible.” Midorima’s answer was as clean and precise as his shots. “I would never lower myself self to Takao’s level.”

 

Takao snorted, “Make me sound like a germ, why don’t you? He’s right though, we’re not going out.”

 

The guy didn’t look convinced. Takao rolled his eyes before pointing at Midorima. “He’s aro/ace for one thing.”  

 

Midorima’s lack of barbs just told the team that Takao was telling the truth. They really didn’t care either way; you don’t gain much by pissing off the power-pair of your team.

 

The guy didn’t seem satisfied just yet, “And what about you, senpai?”

 

Takao shrugged, “I’m with someone.” It was a bald-faced lie but it wasn’t any of their business anyway. He knew he was just looking for gossip. Takao thought he was in the clear before another one of his teammates spoke up.

“Really? With who?”

 

Takao figured he’d might as well run with it. Midorima beat him to the punch though, “With that kid from Seirin.”

 

The team stared in surprise, their gaze shifting from Midorima to the equally surprised, though hiding it well, Takao. The coach told them to resume their practice before any of the others could ask for an elaboration.

 

As soon as he could, and before anyone else got to the green-haired goblin, Takao confronted Midorima.

 

“With _Seirin? Seriously?_ ”

 

Midorima shot a basket, “You were the idiot that lied.”

 

 _“You didn’t have to add in!”_ Takao kept his irritated voice hushed as he moved to block Midorima’s next shot just to pretend he was practicing.

 

“Oha Asa said this morning scorpios were in need of help.” His shot completely bypassed Takao, falling neatly into the net.

 

Takao genuinely wanted to strangle Midorima this time. Instead he just sighed harshly, “Fine, whatever. Just cover me while I make a call.” He quickly left the gym, hoping he was unnoticed.

 

Takao browsed through his contacts, settling on a familiar name from Shutoku’s matches with Seirin. With deft fingers, he sent a text to Izuki asking for help. He didn’t want to expand on it just yet in case he was pre-occupied.

 

Not even a minute later and he got his reply. Feeling the start of a wave of relief, he fired off more of an explanation. Apprehension descended as he awaited the reply.

 

Of course it was some terrible pun with the promise of showing up soon.

 

Takao snorted. This was either going to go great or backfire completely.

 

He slipped back into the gym, no one the wiser to his disappearance. He made his way over to Midorima again, informing him of who he was ‘with’.

 

“Oh and he should be here soon.”

 

If Midorima had taken the shot, it would have touched the rim. Takao knew Midorima wasn't fond of Izuki but he honestly didn’t care. He started it after all.  

Practice continued pretty much normally after that. As the case was, Izuki showed up shortly before practice was over.

 

The whole of Shutoku’s team looked confused as Izuki waved to Takao. Takao could hear the confused murmurs and had to try to not laugh.

 

Izuki came over and put his arm around Takao’s shoulders, giving him an amused wink. “So we goin’ to the planetarium after you clean up? I took the time to _planet_ after all.”

 

Takao snorted amusedly and amusedly removed Izuki’s arm. “Yeah yeah, give me a sec.”

 

This might be fun after all.

 

 


	2. Summer Rain

They went their separate ways once they were far enough. It was a bit of an awkward wave, but Takao was seriously thankful that Izuki had agreed to this little scheme. He hoped that Kuwabara would finally lay off the questions, it was irritating.

 

Of course, he had already cleared with Izuki in case the dolt still insisted on getting into Takao’s personal life. Sometimes it was good having a ‘boyfriend’ from another school; you could do damage control better.

 

As luck would have it, Kuwabara asked about his relationship again. Mostly it was the ‘you’re blowing it out your ass, you two aren’t together’ spiel. Midorima, of course, was of no help. So Takao started to get standoffish with Kuwabara. After all, it’s not like it was any of his business in the first place.

 

Then Hikaru started to ask, nothing harmful of course, but the interest was starting to get on Takao’s nerves. Takao just tried to deflect it, either by changing the subject or being vague in his answer.

 

“You should have just told them the truth.”

 

Takao was seriously going to punch Midorima at this rate. “You helped, don’t act all innocent.”

 

Midorima just ignored him, eating his lunch like his teammate wasn’t even there. Takao huffed and pulled out his cell, firing off a text to Izuki about another ‘date’. With any luck, they guys would stop asking about his love life.

 

Takao didn’t get to read Izuki’s message until the end of the day, but the rival agreed to help Takao out again.

 

And Izuki’s only request? Porkbuns.

 

_Because he was feeling hammy._

 

Takao laughed a little more than he probably should have.

 

They met at a mutually nearby arcade, just to make it seem like they were legit hanging out. Takao wouldn’t put it past Kuwabara spying on them, Izuki didn’t seem to mind. They both played more of the games in the back so that they didn’t have to be near each other constantly. Their merriment was cut a little short when Kagami and Kuroko came by to get Izuki (the dingdong hadn’t checked the messages from his coach).

 

Takao didn’t mind though. He finished up his game before heading back home.

 

The next day proved to dash Takao’s hope of this whole thing dropping, the day after that succeeded in being the same. Before he knew it, Takao had spent more of the week outside of school with Izuki than with Midorima. He couldn’t say he minded the change, in fact he had come to welcome it. Midorima had been colder than normal, even to Takao.

 

Izumi had noticed it one of the times he showed up Takao’s practice. Later he told him, “Icy, I see” when Midorima had walked by.

 

Takao only caught snippets of Midorima’s complaints; he figured he’d hear them later.

  
  


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The rain fell, soaking the sidewalk as Takao walked home. It had been couple of weeks or so since his fake relationship started with Izuki. Both of them kept the front up, Takao’s teammates were oddly vested in it.

 

And it wasn’t like he didn’t enjoy Izuki’s company. At first it had been a little awkward. After all, they had only really spoken out on the court before hand; hardly the place to really form a friendship.

 

Now though, now they had plans to go to the beach in a few days. Granted, it would be with their teams for training like before. Takao didn’t mind in the least; he had had immeasurable amounts of fun before.

 

_Pip pip pip_

 

Lost in his thoughts and the serene rain hitting his umbrella, Takao arrived at his home. He looked through his texts as he went up the stairs to his room. One from Midorima about practice, one from some unknown number about a broken kiln, and one from Izuki. Takao sat on his bed, kicking off his shoes while reading Izuki’s text first.

 

_found a gr8 shirt u wanna wear it?_

 

Attached was a photo of the shirt in question; a white tank with “Boy Toy” emblazoned on front for easy reading. He snorted and jokingly texted back when pigs fly. A moment later and his phone buzzed again.

 

_:’(  lol wat if i wear it?_

 

 _ur choice dude lol_  Takao was sure he wasn’t going to get it, but he wasn’t going to tell him no. Their texts didn’t last much longer, Takao had some homework he needed to get to.

 

Though it seemed Izuki had different ideas. Not even thirty minutes later and he was sending Takao another picture of some dumb shirt he could wear.

 

 _lol ur my fake bf not my fake gigolo/hooker_  He snorted as he sent it off. Takao was starting to hope a little that he wasn’t serious.

 

_ur no fun u want tem to shtup bout this rite?_

 

 _ye but don want them to think ur easy or smth_  Takao sighed. Maybe he should lighten up about this. It was just a shirt after all and he was the one to propose this in the first place.

 

_awww u care lol dont worry bout me c u in a few days ;)_

 

Takao snorted and texted back a ‘c u’ before going back to his homework.

  
  


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Those days passed by in no time at all and Takao found himself on the bus distractedly looking out the window.

 

“Daydreaming about your boyfriend?” Kuwabara sneered from a few rows up.

 

Takao just rolled his eyes as he changed the song on his iPod. “The fact you’re constantly asking about him makes me think _you’re_ the one that wants to go out with him.”

 

Kuwabara just sat there gawking a little before snapping at the guy next to him on the seat. Takao was really getting tired of this. He really did think the guy had a thing for Izuki and was just taking it out on him. Midorima was sitting next to him, reading his most recent text from Kuroko it seemed. Takao raised an eyebrow and stared at him, waiting for him to get fed up and just answer. Serves him right, after all.

 

Midorima sighed before pocketing his cell, “Kuroko was simply trading information about our places of stay with me.”

 

Takao nodded for a second, “I see. I’m sure we would have run into them eventually.” Takao shrugged, resuming looking at the window as the bus neared its location.

 

“And what would that say about you and your ‘relationship’?” Midorima boredly inspected his finger wrappings.

 

“That we suck at keeping in touch? That we’re breaking up?” Takao pulled out his phone immediately after it buzzed. It was from Izuki, unsurprisingly. Takao ignored Midorima’s exasperated huff as he replied back to Izuki.

 

Izuki had said that he was going to meet up with him a little bit after Shutoku settled into their accommodations. Takao replied that it was fine and he’d text him when that happened.

 

Izuki ended up coming over about thirty minutes after they got into their rooms. Takao ignored some of the comments from the less than accepting members of Shutoku as he greeted Izuki. Izuki made muttered comments about their unsavory attitude when he approached; Takao just told him to ignore them.

 

"Those kind of people don't just let things be."

 

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Takao shrugged, leading the way out to of the hotel.

 

Izuki snorted, "You might not like the other side. But you're right," Izuki moved a little closer than normal to Takao, "we'll cross it and give them one heck of a show!"  

 

Takao huffed out a laugh, pushing Izuki away good naturedly. “I don't know about you but I don't plan on putting a performance for them."

 

"Now I'm going to wear that shirt tomorrow, just because you're being a buzzkill." Izuki teased, laughing at Takao’s questioning look.

 

"Shirt? What sh-- Oh god did you _actually buy that stupid shirt?_ " Takao looked incredulously at the smug grin on Izuki’s face.

 

"Guess you'll find out tomorrow~"

 

Takao couldn't help but laugh, the looks on some of his teammates' faces would be priceless. "Guess I will. Now come on, I'm about ready to eat anything..." His stomach growled in agreement.

 

The sly look that Izuki gave him in conjunction with the suggestive eyebrow raise almost had Takao punching him. He later did when Izuki called attention to the now obviously noticeable blush across his face.

  
  


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They jogged together, agreeing to train a bit before facing the others back at Shutoku. Takao enjoyed it; he wouldn't have minded if this became a regular occurrence. He suspected Izuki felt the same way, going off that dweeby grin of his.

 

They stopped about a mile and a half down the path, catching their breath.

 

"Let's head back, I think we had a practice match planned."

 

Izuki nodded, "Sounds good, coach had some drills planned for us." A mischievous grin crossed Izuki’s face, "How about a race back to that tourist shop?"

 

"Oh? Isn't that a bit far for you?" Takao teased.

 

Izuki snorted, faking the wound Takao’s words left. "Ah you're so mean to me!" He laughed.

 

Takao grinned, "Aside from bragging rights, what’s the winner get?"

 

Izuki pondered that a moment, humming in thought while he did. He grinned after a moment, "How about whatever they want from the loser?"

 

Takao thought it over before quickly agreeing.

 

They both took to the 'starting line', dragging some poor bystander to give the start so that they didn’t cheat.

 

"Ready..... Set.....GO!!"

 

Takao was in the lead for about half of the time, though Izuki was never very far behind. They chanced breathless banter as they raced down the street, trying to avoid knocking anyone over. Takao thought he was going to make it; only a little bit further and he had been holding his leading.

 

"Y...y'know I can't... I won't let you...pass"

 

"Shouldn't you say that... to Kuroko... dontcha think?" Izuki was starting to pass Takao.

 

"If the little phantom... was here then sure."

 

"Careful, his tiger might get you," Izuki managed to get to the building a fraction sooner than Takao. They both stood there catching their breath, garnering looks of confusion from pedestrians. After a moment they both started laughing.

 

"Dammit! I was so close!" Takao good naturedly complained.

 

Izuki laughed some more before calming down enough to reply, “Maybe next time.”

 

“Yeah yeah, now what do you want from me?” Takao took a swig of water from the near by water fountain.

 

Izuki seemed to think it over, thoughtfully humming before shrugging. “How about a rain check on it? I can’t think of anything right now.”

 

Takao pulled away from the fountain to give Izuki an unimpressed look. “Seriously?” he joked, “I don’t remember us agreeing that rain checks were okay."

 

"We never disagreed either so check it," Izuki grinned.

 

Takao had rolled his eyes but went along with it.

  
  


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Izuki and Takao parted ways on one of the main streets, agreeing to meet up the next day. Izuki had been insistent that he come 'pick up' Takao from Shutoku's hotel of choice. To say he was concerned as to what the other had planned was an understatement. Takao went to bed that night fully aware of the probability that Izuki was going to wear _that_ shirt.

 

Sure enough, Izuki showed up the next day in a crop top with ‘boy toy’ streaked across the front. Takao could feel himself flushed in embarrassment.

 

Izuki didn’t look bothered one bit. In fact, he was beaming.

 

The other Shutoku players, including Midorima, seemed to be split between bemused horror and amused confusion. Izuki walked towards Takao, who reciprocated the motion. He could hear the shocked mutterings between his teammates.

 

“ _Holy shit, didn’t know Takao was into freaks._ ”

 

 _“Isn’t that one of Seirin’s guys? We lost to **that?**_ ”

 

“ _This has got to be some sort of joke…_ ”

 

Kuwabara seemed like he was the most bored by the display of affection before him.

 

Izuki seemed to finally notice that he just _might_ have crossed a line, if the uncomfortable looks Takao gave him were anything to go off of. When they were face to face, Izuki gave a reassuring grin. “Relax, it’s not like I’m going to french you.”

 

“Yeah, that’d require you to be french.” Takao found a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth

 

Izuki leaned in despite the protests behind them from the Shutoku team, pecking Takao on the lips. He hovered there, just long enough to whisper, “Oui, mais c'est pour ça que j'apprends le français.”

 

Takao stood there dumbfounded much like the rest of his team. It took only a minutes before half of the guys awkwardly congratulated him while the remainders simply looked in disgust.

Basketballs mysteriously hit those guys, including Kuwabara. Takao told himself to thank Midorima later because honestly, who else could it have been?

 

Izuki laughed and slung his arm around Takao’s shoulders, turning his attention to Shutoku. “I’m just going to steal him for a little bit. We’ll be back before you know it!”

 

Takao rolled his eyes at the awkwardness from his team as he studiously ignored the embarrassment he felt from the moment prior. Muttering only loud enough for Izuki to hear, he said, "I'm not a ball."

 

Izuki smirked devilishly, "No, but they are mine." He ran away cackling as Takao took chase.

 

His face was scarlet as he called Izuki a whole slew of names. Takao swore he was to end the bastard. He chased Izuki all the way back to Seirin’s makeshift training complex on the beach. Izuki, the rat, hid behind one of the many storage sheds that lined the beach. Izuki laughed when Takao told him to stop hiding, easily putting distance between the two of them as he lead them in circles.

 

Takao was slowly losing steam from his embarrassed anger, causing him to eventually sigh loudly. “Okay! Alright you win for now,” Takao hoped the admittance of defeat would lure Izuki out. Takao had to repeat himself a few more times as Izuki didn’t seem like he was going to give himself up so easily. Takao leaned up against one of the sheds, seeing if he could catch Izuki.

 

Izuki tried to sneak up on him, but Takao caught him before he got close enough. He took a swing at Izuki, not hard enough to hurt if it even actually landed. Unsurprisingly Izuki dodged it.

 

"We should probably find your teammates." Fake relationship or not, Takao figured they were wondering where they were.

 

"Oh yeah right. They should be coming this way soon."

 

"You sure?"

 

"Positive!"

 

"You forgot we changed plans for today, Izuki-senpai." The soft voice of Kuroko jarred the other two, causing them to turn toward the source.

 

Kuroko stood right in front of the decorative hedges that divided the beach and the parallel side walk. He blankly looked at the two of them, calmly waiting for a response. Izuki was the one to respond, much to Takao’s relief.

 

Takao just listened to Kuroko and Izuki talk to one another, clarifying the change in plans. Apparently Seirin’s coach hadn’t liked the idea of Shutoku possibly watching and moved their training for today inside one of the nearby gyms. Once that was all cleared up, Kuroko began to inquire about how the fake relationship was going.

 

"Nasty talks and scorn looks, especially with the stunt Izuki pulled today." Takao shrugged when Kuroko silently looked at him for an expansion on his reply. Izuki filled Kuroko in, much to Takao’s chagrin.

 

"Wait, what happened?" Takao nearly leap out of his skin. He had been focused enough on Kuroko and Izuki talking that he didn't even notice Kagami coming up behind them. Izuki laughed at him while Kagami just looked confused, the oaf.

 

"Jesus, Kuroko's been rubbing off on you."

 

Kuroko just shrugged when Kagami looked toward him, not sure what Takao meant.

 

Izuki snorted, "More like he's been rubbing off to Kuroko."

 

Kuroko tripped Izuki before the idiot could fully run from Kagami's flustered wrath. Furihata, at the behest of Riko, found them all. Thankfully he didn’t ask as to what was happening; he only informed them that Riko wanted them in the local gym as soon as possible.

 

Takao decided to stick around for a while and watch Seirin play. Riko was against it at first but all of the boys, especially Izuki, convinced her that there wouldn't have been an issue. Takao had chimed in that Izuki had caught snippets of Shutoku's practice so fair's fair. He only ended up watching for about thirty minutes before Riko agreed to let him participate in one of their mock matches.

 

Naturally Izuki and Takao were placed on opposite teams to even things out. The other star players of Seirin were also split up to better improve flexibility in official games. Izuki, Kagami, Furihata, Koganei, and Kawahara were on one team while Takao, Kuroko, Hyuuga, Mitobe, and Fukuda comprised the other.

 

The first few minutes of the match weren't as terrible as Takao thought they would have been. It was awkward as hell getting accustomed to new 'teammates', that was something Takao expected. He was happy to note that the mix up also threw Seirin’s all-stars off a little bit.

 

Kuroko's passes were sometimes too much for the others to receive. Takao on more than one occasion had a hard time keeping a hand on the ball. Hyuuga seemed to be the only one remotely used to them.

 

Kagami had a tendency to dominate the court, much like Aomine would. He would always back off when Riko or one of his other teammates made mention of it.

 

Over all, they learned a lot from the mix up. Riko changed it up only one other time, taking Takao out. He wasn’t happy but he understood why; it wasn’t his team after all.

 

He sat and watched for a little bit longer. When it was apparent that they weren't going to end anytime soon, Takao informed that he was going to leave. He got a few sparse goodbyes, mainly because everyone was focused on the game at hand. Izuki was the only one to give him an exuberant farewell, telling Takao he'd catch him after dinner.

 

Takao didn’t dwell on the warm feeling the promise made him.

  
  


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He only gave a hello to a few of his teammates when he got back; partially because he was hungry but mainly because some of the guys were ostracizing him. Takao could tell that they were bothered by how little it affected him. He took his normal seat next to Midorima, talking amusedly while he just ate. Takao talked about the practice and just in general things he did that day; most of which involving Izuki.

 

“So you’re going to hang out with him later tonight, I assume?”

 

Takao blinked, he hadn’t mentioned it explicitly but it wasn’t like Midorima was a dunce. “Yeah. Problem?” He honestly couldn’t think of if they had plans as a team that night.

 

Midorima shook his head, “No.” Takao watched in confusion as Midorima took out his cell phone and texted someone. Any time he looked to see who it was to or what the message was about, Midorima blocked the view of his phone. He put it away a moment later, returning to his meal. "Just be careful, idiot."

 

Takao rolled his eyes a little before going back to his own dinner. He could take care of himself and said as much. After a few minutes, Takao finished his dinner. Some of the other guys had already left, doing who knew what. He bid Midorima adieu before heading to his meeting place with Izuki.

 

It was a little out of the way but the view was spectacular. Takao started the climb up the dimly lit street, careful to keep a cautious eye out on his surroundings. Passing by a dark alley, he caught the motion of a person there. Before he could safely get away from the mouth of dank backstreet, the shadowy figure advanced on him. The person, whom Takao assumed was a guy, closed the distance quickly. He lunged to get Takao in a headlock, pulling him down the alleyway. Takao tried to throw the stranger off by aiming for any weak points he could find. A grunt from his assailant told Takao that he had gotten close to his mark, though he was unable to exploit it before the guy roughly pushed Takao against the building's wall. Takao hissed as his cheek pressed into the side.

 

The perpetrator pressed against Takao, pinning him there before roughly talking into his ear. "Of all the idiots you had to fawn over, why _him?_ "

 

Kuwabara's voice caused Takao to freeze up for a moment, the venom dripping in his voice told him he needed to tread carefully. "Well, Midorima would say that I'm a narcissus-" Takao grunted when Kuwabara pushed him into the wall more.

 

"I don't want any of your damn jokes!"

 

Takao winced, taking a deep breath before trying again. "I meant to say that since he has many similarities to me, I like to hang out with him." He didn’t know if that would sate whatever grievance Kuwabara had, but he figured what could it hurt.

 

Kuwabara didn’t let go of him, however. If fact, he started to press up against Takao more. "That's not good enough," He spat out, Takao wasn’t sure what he was planning on doing but he didn't want to find out.

 

He pushed back against Kuwabara, trying to throw him off. It worked for a moment before he regained his balance and pinned Takao back to wall roughly. Takao frowned, furrowing his brows as he tried to look back at Kuwabara, “Then what do you _want_ from me?”

 

He froze when Kuwabara’s tongue traced the outside of his ear, starting from the lobe. “ _You_ ideally.” Takao scowled, set on removing his assaulter off of him. All he needed was to land a good hit to get the jackass off of him.

 

Kuwabara didn’t seem to take kindly to that, using more force to keep Takao down. They ended up in a scuffle; Kuwabara using his size to full advantage against Takao. Possessive bites in between the harsh shoves against the stucco wall left scrapes and scratches against his skin.  Takao wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to get the upper hand anytime soon.

 

Then there was a solid thud behind him and the pressure Kuwabara had been imposing disappeared. Takao didn’t just sit and gawk; he dashed closer to the entrance of the alley way before turning to see who had assaulted his assaulter. It wasn’t even a moment later before he recognized who it was before he dashed back over to the fray again.

 

Izuki was going toe to toe with Kuwabara, clearly not one used to getting into fights. Takao swooped in just in time to pull Izuki out of the way of an incoming punch. He then used the opening that Kuwabara provided to give a solid right hook to his gut, knocking the wind out of him. He immediately turned around and grabbed Izuki’s wrist as he dashed out of the alleyway. He didn’t stop running until they were a few blocks away.

 

Izuki looked behind them when they stopped, not seeing any sign of Kuwabara. He turned back to Takao, giving him a concerned look. “What happened, Takao?”

 

Takao sighed, glancing behind them as well, “That idiot jumped me walking up this way. I knew he was being an asshole, but I didn’t think he’d do _that_.”

 

Izuki started to check Takao over, gauging the scratches and newly forming bruises as Takao continued talking about the series of events. Izuki frowned as he listened, eventually interrupting Takao, “We need to get these cleaned up.”

 

“They’re not that deep, it’s fine.” Takao shrugged. His face fell a little when he finally got a decent look at his face. Izuki’s eye was already starting to swell, the discoloration of a bruise not far behind. Takao grimaced, _Kuwabara must have gotten in a good hit when I wasn’t looking_.   

 

“If anything, you need an ice pack.” Takao poked at Izuki’s chest exasperatedly.

 

Izuki raised an eyebrow in confusion, “What’s that look for?”

 

“Oh, just noticing how shiny your eye is going to look in a couple of hours.”

 

Izuki snorted, clearly amused.

 

After a bit more inspecting of each other’s surface wounds, they agreed to head back to Seirin’s hotel. Izuki reasoned that it was closer between the two and he knew Riko would have a first aid with everything they needed. “Not to mention she’s going to find out sooner or later,” he pointed out.

 

So they walked. The hotel was a few blocks away, but it was all on well lit streets. Takao figured Kuwabara wasn’t stupid enough to try something like that again that night. Izuki seemed to disagree, if his constant attention was something to go by.

 

“I really doubt he’s going to just pop out. He’s stupid but not that stupid.” Izuki only just laughed it off, Takao could tell it wasn’t a genuine laugh.

 

He didn’t press it.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy shit this was one of the biggest chapters I've EVER written. Big round of applause to fililikilili on tumblr for on the open doc with me and giving me comments all the time, it really helped motivate me :D There is more planned for this, I just don't know when I'll get to it :'> Comments certainly do help the process though //nudge nudge//

**Author's Note:**

> Holy crap this was a lot of fun also I have plans to continue it every once in a while (Especially if you guys like it) Completely unbeta'd so please let me know of any mistakes. (Also I am horrible at puns so Izuki's going to be a challenge for me)


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